/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.13872667]

Why isn't Siddhartha more prominent? It seems like it should be more commonly known and taught in high school lit classes. It's accessible on the same tier as Catcher in the Rye and 1984, it's about a minority and features world religion. Is it because Hesse is German?

[Anonymous No.13872682]

>>13872667
because it's actually good

[Anonymous No.13872714]

>>13872667
1984 because it is iconic, and didactic.
Catcher in the Rye in the hope kids relate to Holden.

It might be that Hesse as a German didn't slot into the syllabus. Should be promoted over The Alchemist.

[Anonymous No.13872742]

Siddhartha wasn't his best. Narcissus & Goldmund and Demian should be read in schools. Jung should also be taught in schools.

[Anonymous No.13873150]

>Read Demian
Dam I need to read all of Hesse right now.
>Read Siddhartha
Think I'll take a break from this NJ-tier moron.

Should I read Steppenwolf?

[Anonymous No.13873195]

>>13872667
Siddhartha's the only book of those 3 that my high school required. Guess I lucked out

[Anonymous No.13873615]

>>13873150
Steppenwolf is VERY different from Steppenwolf. I loved Steppenwolf and if you're into any of Jung's work you'll like it. I feel like a lot of anons can relate to it. I've never read Demian but I've heard it's similar and a good book to read before Steppenwolf.

[Anonymous No.13873622]

>>13873615
Shit
*Siddhartha is very different from steppenwolf

[Anonymous No.13873869]

>>13873150
Demian > Narcissus & Goldmund > Steppenwolf > Siddhartha
The only major work of his that I have yet to read is The Glass Bead Game.
Does anybody care about his other works? Journey to the East? His earlier stuff?

[Anonymous No.13873877]

>>13873869
I'm going to also mention that Siddhartha feels out of place compared to his other books. All of his books have similar themes among eachother while Siddhartha has the least similarity.

[Anonymous No.13873896]

>>13872742
What would it take for Jung to be academically accepted

[Anonymous No.13873900]

>>13873869
Hesse is one of my favorite authors but I didn't care for The Journey to the East, though perhaps that was because by the time I read it I kinda understood most of the ideas he presents so it felt like a rehashing of the whole master/servant duality and enlightenment shit he always does.

For me though I'd say:
>Demian = Steppenwolf > Siddhartha > Narcissus and Goldmund
So maybe you'd like it more than me. I also haven't read The Glass Bead Game.

[Anonymous No.13873989]

I studied it in high school, actually. It’s a bit shallow, in all seriousness. Essentially baby-tier mysticism that, in a very roundabout way, advocates to “just be”, but without the simple charm. For me, Demian is his best work and it isn’t even all that good. It’s like a YA version of The Recognitions

[Anonymous No.13874061]

>>13872667
Because everyone sees through the bullshit this "novel" tries to spin as gold, as "enlightenment".

[Anonymous No.13874780]

>>13872667
Its The Alchemist of its time

[Anonymous No.13874862]

>>13872714
1984 so that you think a dystopia will be crushingly obvious.

Catcher in the Rye to infect kids with Holden's anxieties.

Did you come out of all those years of school thinking it was about learning, you fish?

[Anonymous No.13876401]

>>13872667
It's okay, I read it in an afternoon. I can see how this book might lead children towards Schopenhauer (and therefore Nietzsche). Can't have that, of course.

[Anonymous No.13876495]

>>13876401
I read Hesse's 'Self-Will' essay. Reminded me of Emerson's Self-Reliance. I'm going to into Schopenhauer.

[Anonymous No.13876504]

>>13876495
I also have a pdf on the influence of schoppy and nietzsche on hesse. Gonna read that soon. I'm rereading Demian for now.

[Anonymous No.13876511]

>>13876504
>>I also have a pdf on the influence of schoppy and nietzsche on hesse.
On that note, you should really read Thomas Mann's essay on Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. It beautifully explains both of their philosophies. Schopenhauer in particular.

[Anonymous No.13876519]

>>13876511
Will do. Is Magic Mountain worth reading? I've never read Mann.

[Anonymous No.13876522]

>>13876519
You should read everything by Mann, although I read him in original German. Magic Mountain is a good start as any, though Joseph is probably his best work (in my estimation).

[Anonymous No.13876529]

>>13872667
Hesse is part of the German high school curriculum and a prominent German author in general (e.g. Steppenwolf is frequently studied too).

[Anonymous No.13876547]

>>13876529
Do you guys still study Goethe?
>tfw from a country with next to no noteworthy literary tradition

[Anonymous No.13876574]

>>13876547
Yes, I read Faust 1 & 2 in 9th or 10th grade.

[Anonymous No.13876601]

It is a common high school book

[Anonymous No.13876686]

>>13872667
>be Hesse
>totally do your thing handling literature, religion, and philosophy like you freaking invented it
>write novels like an absolute champion
>become the most read continental author in the US of A
>become rich and famous during lifetime
>dont let it go to your head
>keep writing quality content, painting, and living the life
>they make several movies and plays based on your stuff
>have several titles in all noteworthy canons and school curriculums
>"what is a writer's blockade?"
>4Chan seldomly discusses your books because you either read you and love you or they do so someday
>sell books galore
OP still thinks Siddharta isn't prominent enough. what??

[Anonymous No.13876870]

>>13872667
These are the books of his I have on my shelf

[Anonymous No.13876992]

I am reading this and feel gut disgust at you comparing it with Latent-Homosexuality: the novel and Babby's-Beginner-to-Dystopias
Siddhartha is a very masculine book about not being a pussy and it shits on literally any lifestyle at some point in the book.
>>13873195
you definitely did, siddhartha is the most masculine out of those three, the other two being twink-incubation and british-breakfast-breakdown
>>13874061
you didn't read it, did you?
the book is about finding ones' self without the help of any teachings and to avoid the many pitfalls that others don't
>>13874862
you have all the right opinions

[Anonymous No.13877001]

>>13876870
... I hope you started with the greeks...

[Anonymous No.13877008]

>>13876601
nobody in highschool reads the highschool books

[Anonymous No.13877047]

>>13872667
What are you suppose to take from Siddhartha? I thought it was quite bad and pretentious

[Anonymous No.13877050]

>>13877047
how was it bad, how was it pretentious?
also the message is to struggle through life and avoid asceticism/being jaded or samsara until you finally realise the truth and die happily

[Anonymous No.13877058]

>>13877001
On The Republic, currently

[Anonymous No.13877066]

>>13877047
Siddhartha
tl;dr: you don't need guidance nor extremes, you need to think for yourself

[Anonymous No.13877076]

>>13877047
You're appealing to something akin to authorial intent. You aren't meant to take anything away from anything, but if you have some insight you might.

My own take was as a kind of folk story for why Buddhism became Eastern rather than Western and by implication Christianity went the other way.

[Anonymous No.13877118]

>>13877076
nice take. would you expand on the division?

[Anonymous No.13877130]

>>13877076
>My own take was as a kind of folk story for why Buddhism became Eastern rather than Western and by implication Christianity went the other way.
Hmmm... didn't think of it that way before...
that's only the ascetic part though ... and there are still Samanas. Do you agree that Samsara is supposed to be atheist in nature, reflective of consumerist society?

[Anonymous No.13877193]

>>13877050
I just thought it was basic, though there is a chance I'm just missing something. From how I understood it Siddhartha found inner peace and truth if you want to call it that by self reflection and looking inwards. But how come his friend didn't come to the same conclusions, he spend his whole life on the path, in the search for inner peace

[Anonymous No.13877200]

>>13877193
his friend devoted himself to Buddha's teachings, trying to replicate anothers' enlightenment which isn't representative of the quest he should've underwent on his own
govinda is simple minded

[Anonymous No.13877207]

>>13877193
his friend devoted himself to Buddha's teachings, trying to replicate anothers' enlightenment which isn't representative of the quest he should've underwent on his own
govinda is simple minded, look at how he judges siddhartha just by the clothes the former wears when they meet again

there's a reason siddhartha didn't divulge his reason for continuing his path after meeting Buddha, first because govinda needed independence and he wasn't getting it with siddhartha, and second because govinda wouldn't understand.

[Anonymous No.13877214]

>>13877200
>>13877207
holy hivemind

[Anonymous No.13877249]

>>13877200
>>13877207
Fair enough, though I still think Siddhartha's way to enlightenment felt a bit cheap

[Anonymous No.13877254]

>>13877249
he literally tried to commit suicide, how is that cheap?

[Anonymous No.13877260]

>>13877254
I mean his river conversation and exchanging silence with the old man, I wish book spend more time there

[Anonymous No.13877280]

>>13877260
yeah, they only spent a chapter there, which was kind of weird
they could have produced an entire novel around that concept to be fair, but then again there's plenty of work like that if you desire so
like bansho's

[Anonymous No.13877320]

>>13877280
Thanks, going to check it out

[Anonymous No.13877328]

>>13877320
synopsis:
In his perfectly crafted haiku poems, Basho described the natural world with great simplicity and delicacy of feeling. When he composed The Narrow Road to the Deep North he was a serious student of Zen Buddhism setting off on a series of travels designed to strip away the trappings of the material world and bring spiritual enlightenment. He wrote of the seasons changing, of the smell of the rain, the brightness of the moon and the beauty of the waterfall, through which he sensed the mysteries of the universe. These travel writings not only chronicle Basho's perilous journeys through Japan, but they also capture his vision of eternity in the transient world around him.

[Anonymous No.13877359]

>>13872667
Two reasons.
1: Because paulo coelho's the alchemist already occupies the space Siddhartha needs.
2: And because unlike the alchemist, Siddhartha while not being perfect is a genuinely good book

[Anonymous No.13877446]

>>13876870
Nice stack bro. I hope you're reading Borges in Spanish, if not you're a pseud.

[Anonymous No.13877698]

>>13872714
But I relate to Siddharta

[Anonymous No.13878088]

bump

[Anonymous No.13878132]

>>13873615
>Steppenwolf is VERY different from Steppenwolf

[Anonymous No.13878172]

>>13877446
and these are books above the others

[Anonymous No.13878181]

>>13877446
And this is my, kek kek kek vroooom vrooom autism bike bike stack, that’s why they’re at the bottom

[Anonymous No.13878192]

>>13877446
Now this, is my /business/ politics technical applied math/ architecture/ Neo classical painting/ economics side accounting side

[Anonymous No.13878626]

>>13873869
symbolically journey to the east is as powerful as anything else he's written. it's worthwhile for fans.

also consider his fairy tales.

beneath the wheel was solid. i mean i've read everything translated by him (about 15 years ago when i was in college) and he's pretty consistent. gertrude, camenzind, rosshalde (sp?) etc all solid. hm trying to think of more off the top of my head but i don't recall anything being awful IF you like hesse's approach in general. i think glass bead game and steppenwolf were the only books that were sluggish but still conceptually interesting.

i think demian was my favorite as having a great ending paragraph.

[Anonymous No.13878980]

>>13872667
Why would they read a German, talented or not, in English Literature classes retard

[Anonymous No.13879002]

>>13878980
Based

[Anonymous No.13879225]

>>13873896
Him being right about a thing or two, but he’s not.

[Anonymous No.13879237]

Is there a bigger critique of academia than the Glass Bead Game? H. H. Was fucking pissed.

[Anonymous No.13879253]

>>13872714
I once told my teacher that Siddhartha is superior to The Alchemist because, as >13876992 pointed out, "the book is about finding ones' self without the help of any teachings and to avoid the many pitfalls that others don't", while the alchemist there's usually someone holding the main characters hand and says "just keep doing it till you make it! and you'll make it! Eventually!!!" message, which is terrible. He got so mad too.

[Anonymous No.13879265]

>>13873989
>“just be”
That's not what the book was about

[Anonymous No.13879323]

>>13877193
Isn't every book basic?
Siddhartha found peace by learning the meaning of life and letting go of all desires, he was only able to do this by experiencing all paths of life and resisting them before delving into them too far. This theme is repeated over and over throughout the book; he leaves hinduism, leaves his friend and buddha, he leaves wealth, he leaves his pussy behind and his son and a couple of other little things; point being is that we cannot be enlightened without experiencing a bit of all paths of life, and only through self reflection can we realize the truth of those lives, and what it means to really live. That's just one of the major themes from the book too.
His friend didn't become enlightened because he only lived one side of life.

[Anonymous No.13879393]

>>13876686
s-sauce?? anon PLEASE

[Anonymous No.13879478]

>>13873869
I read "beneath the weel" for my german class. It was good, I enjoyed reading it, though the ending was pretty damn predictable and felt kinda cheap.
It's basically a story of an exceptionally smart young who's sent to a seminary in which he tries to make friends and not get caught up in academic pressure as he's searching for his place in the competitive world he's surrounded in.
If you've read Demian this book is kinda obsolete. It's a nice read but you won't get much out of it if you've read his other books already.

Also why are the old front covers of his books so fucking based??

[Anonymous No.13879560]

>>13877280
Man, I fuckin love Basho. Wish he wrote more stuff.

[Anonymous No.13881000]

Bump

[Anonymous No.13881169]

>>13879265
Oh yeah? What’s the message here aside from some half-baked mysticism gleaned from eastern religions

[Anonymous No.13881212]

>>13872742
Magister ludi I also liked better. But siddhartha is much, much better than anything they taught in my ap lit classes in school.
>ap lit teacher thought siddhartha was a religious manuscript
>also thought one flew was about chief being drugged out of his mind and hallucinating nurse ratchet.
Women need to stay the fuck out of academics

[Anonymous No.13882753]